Dahmer Flu (19 page)

Several more days passed; it was easy to lose track of exactly how many. The group of girls passed by the window a few times a day, which I realized I could use to mark time, or at least upcoming meals since they were most likely the ones preparing them. The boys would come out, as well, once a day, either running laps or practicing combative. It became a very surreal existence, with nothing to read, nothing to do, and only Pandit for company- and he didn’t speak much. When he did, it was too often about something horrible, so I tried my best to block him out. Lisa stopped by several more times, mostly around lunchtime, and I began to look forward to her visits; at least it was some small measure of kindness. I wasn’t dead, yet, and I suspected that she may have had something to do with that fact.

The evening was peaceful; the rest of the city had locked in for the night, and I was enjoying the crisp air that slipped in through the window. Small pleasures. Pandit, as usual, slept early and snored noisily from his cot, one of his lesser habits that I’d learned to ignore by now.

The sky was just giving way to dusk, with a few clouds littering the vibrantly painted horizon. The moon was rising early, and a bright shooting star arced gracefully across the sky…

…Before slamming violently into the ground outside of the fence line. The ground shuddered like an angry giant, spewing rock and soil high into the air. I instinctively dropped to the ground, waiting for the explosions that I knew were to follow. I didn’t have to wait long; three more fell in quick succession. By the amount of rock that was raining over the compound, I was sure they hit something concrete, and hoped that it was the foundations from outside the fence.

Pandit rolled out of bed with a curse after the first blast; “Ulta koira gache jhulay dimu!” He shouted, which didn’t really need a translation. “What the hell?” He shouted.

“Keep your ass down; I don’t know,” I replied. I prayed to any god that was listening that they wouldn’t hit Madi’s room, wherever that was.

“Nuts to that,” he said, peering over the ledge. “Shit, take a look at this!”

Carefully, I looked through the window. Ducking as automatic weapon fire raked the fence line and the closest classrooms. Small groups began to carefully approach the compound, keeping a low profile. They were smart, keeping the defenders’ heads down with suppressive fire, while taking advantage of the disorientation caused by the explosions by moving in for the kill, coming in from the setting sun.

“This should be over pretty quick,” Pandit laughed.

“Maybe not… Recent as a couple of days ago, there was a good sized group of those brainstalkers not too far off, only reason they hadn’t found this place yet is luck. They’ll be here soon enough- with all this noise, you can count on that,” I answered.

“Oh,” Pandit replied, the smile gone from his face. The advancing men had dropped to a shooting position as the Colonel’s men began to return fire of their own, now from the north, trying to fire from the living areas. The fierce battle was firmly underway.

I looked and saw Jon rush around the corner, a large ring of keys clutched in his hand and a heavy backpack weighing on his shoulders. “Jon!” I called. He rushed to the window.

“Hi Brad, Hi Pandit. There’s people shooting. Did you know that?” He spoke like a frightened child that was trying desperately to seem brave.

“Yes, I did. Jon, you need to let us out of here, we need to get away.”

A remorseful look soured his face. “I’m sorry, Brad, I have to do this. I’m keeping people safe,” he said. He started to walk away, but as my only chance for escape, I needed him to stay.

“How are you doing that, Jon?”

He stepped back to the window. “I’m keeping the people locked in, it’s for their own protection, so they don’t get out where they can get hurt or dead. That’s my job, it keeps people safe. I’ve done most of them, so I need to finish.”

“Jon, these people aren’t safe. Look.” I pointed to the far tree line, where the first of the horde had already begun to emerge. I heard Jon draw in a sharp breath; he saw them too. “That changes things, Jon, there’s going to be hundreds of those things, maybe even thousands. These people that you’re locking in, they’re as good as dead if they stay here. If they’re not eaten by the ‘stalkers, they’ll starve to death and that means me and Pandit here, too.” Pandit nodded next to me, seeing where I was headed. The gunfire continued around us, but Jon didn’t seem to notice as he considered what I was saying.

“But the Colonel says were safe this way, it’s his plan, and he’s always right.”

“But he’s not here, Jon, but if he was, he’d tell you the same thing, I promise. Listen, you want to protect these people, right?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“And that’s your job, right? To protect those people?”

“Right!” he said, proudly.

“Then you need to act, and do your job. Do you know what they do, Jon? Do you know what they do when they get a hold of somebody?”

“They eat people,” he said, sadly. I’d hit a nerve; I suspected that he had seen it happen, so I pressed on the point.

“Yes, Jon. But they don’t just eat you, not quick; they bite and claw. It’s horrible and painful and a slow way to die. Do you remember my daughter, you remember Madi?”

“Yes,” he beamed. “I like her, she’s nice. She hugged me once.”

I hid my revulsion. “Right, Jon, Madi is nice. But look again, there’s more of them.” More had appeared from the trees, now a wide and advancing wall of flesh. A few shots peppered the ground around the group, with more as the two armies began to notice the new threat and try to split their attention between the living and undead. “When they get here, and they will, they will kill her, Jon. They’ll kill Madi. Do you want that?” I was shouting now, over the increasing volume of nearby gunfire and screams.

“No! No!” he yelled, “I don’t! Okay, I’ll let you two out.” He started to run towards the administrative complex.

“Where are you going?” I called after him. “Let us out!”

He returned to the window, assuming the patience of a father to a young child. “The Colonel doesn’t let me have the key to the jail, he keeps that himself. But I know where it is. I’ll go get it and come back.”

He started to leave. I called after him, “If you see my bag, bring that, too!” If he heard, he gave no reply. A moment later, he returned to the window, proudly holding a single key in one hand, my satchel in the other.

“Got it!” he announced as he unlocked the door. Pandit and I poured out; he cut to the left and away from the noise. I cut to the right, towards where I knew I’d find Madi. Jon caught up with me, running hard, and grabbed me by the arm.

“Wait, please, take me with you. I don’t want to die.” I saw that he was crying. “And I know how to get out of here.” I carefully looked around the corner; the two groups of living humans were now fully aware of the menace that was continuing to emerge from the woods, but couldn’t trust each other enough to join forces against the common threat. Instead, they continued to battle each other while taking only occasional potshots at the undead.

“Where’s Madi?” I called.

“This way, I didn’t lock that one yet.” Jon motioned for me to follow. Men ran in different directions, some towards, some away; a young child stood crying in the middle of a courtyard, and was scooped up by a woman who also ran from the sounds of gunfire. Jon stopped one of the men that he seemed to know. “The Colonel told me to give this to you. Unlock the billeting rooms.” The man grabbed the offered keys and ran in that direction; maybe he’d actually let them out, but at least they’d have a chance.

After a dizzying race, with me following Jon through the winding hallways at breakneck speeds, he stopped suddenly at a door marked ‘Home Economics’. Inside, a group of small girls sad huddled against the far wall, the oldest holding them like a protective mother, the fear in her eyes nearly glowing in the dark. Madi, thankfully, was among them, until she broke from them and ran towards me.

“Daddy!” She called as she ran, crashing into me in a tight embrace as I kneeled to meet her. “They told me you left, why did you leave?” she sobbed.

“They made me, honey, but I came back for you as soon as I could. We have to go, now, okay?”

She started to follow me, but broke off and ran back towards the group of girls.

“Madi!” I called.

She stopped in front of the girls. “I’m leaving now, but thank you for taking care of me.” She ran next to a low wall locker and opened it quickly, taking out only her homemade bag, then back to me while the remaining girls looked on. “Okay, now I’m ready,” she said, simply.

I hauled Madi into my arms and ran. I wasn’t sure where, but I followed Jon as we navigated the confused sea of people; they were trying unsuccessfully to comprehend and combat the two growing threats. The attackers, the human ones, had met with the undead on their flank, and were trying desperately, and failing miserably, to fight both wars at once.

“This way, fence!” Jon yelled over his shoulder, running towards the far side of the compound away from the battles. As we broke from the relative safety of the buildings, trying to keep them between us and the attackers, I spotted Lisa and another man carrying a still body on a stretcher. They laid him in one of a long row of bodies, some moving, and some eerily still.

Damn it.

I called to Jon, “Jon, stop!” He slid to a halt on the grass quickly, and I nearly ran directly into him.

“What?” he asked.

“Wait here with Madi, I’ll be right back. Stay down, both of you!”

Madi dropped low to the ground, and looked up at me. “Okay, Daddy. Please hurry.” She wasn’t comfortable, but she listened- she still trusted me.

I ran to the nurse’s station, where I saw Lisa treating the overflow from the medical beds. They were lying outside of the door and propped against the wall; any available surface was covered with blood or body, both the living and the dead. As I got closer, and navigated over and through the sea of the dead and dying, I saw a mixture of savage bullet wounds and uneven bite marks; the area smelled like burned and rotten flesh. I was more used to the sensation that I would have liked. I saw the first of the undead inside the fence line. The line had broken, the city had fallen.

I pushed past the men, and now also women, that crowded the door, searching the rooms until I saw Lisa tearing sheets to form makeshift bandages for the man writing on the table. Another man was using all his strength to hold him down and keep him from falling off.

For the briefest of moments, she looked shocked when she saw me, but she recovered when she remembered what she was trying to do. “Help me tear these!” She shouted over the screams and shouts of the wounded and dying. She thrust the sheets towards my chest, but instead of grabbing them, I grabbed her wrist. She pulled back and shouted, “Let go, I’m working!”

I didn’t. “It’s too late, Lisa.” I pulled her close, and whispered into her ear. “They’re in the gate. All of these people, they’ll be dead soon, and you will be too if you stay here. We need to go. Now.”

She pulled her arm away from me; her stern voice was betrayed by the quiver of fear. “These are my patients. Now leave.”

I thought about it, thought about leaving about leaving; running away and leaving her to die. Against my better judgment, I couldn’t. “They’re corpses now, Lisa, each one of them; some of them just don’t know it yet. And staying here won’t change that. I have Madi with me, and we’re leaving. If you want to help someone, help the living.”

I saw her eyes run from one patient to the next. Many, now, had fresh bite wounds. She knew what that meant as well as I; it was over, and staying would only mean that she would soon be dead, as well, and the world would be short one more doctor. She dropped her eyes, and then dropped the bandages.

“Madi still has a chance, if you help her. She’s hurt,” I lied. “She caught a stray round in the wrist- she’s bleeding real bad and we can’t stop it.”

“She did?” She was alarmed and stepped away from the man on the table.

“Yeah, she’s asking for you. Please.”

“Okay.” She said. I pulled her by the hand, leading her through the maze of back rooms, hoping I remembered the location of the back door correctly. Fortunately, I had. We burst outside, into the rapidly darkening night. Tracer fire sketched the sky and a white phosphorus flare floated lazily through the cloud, lighting up the ground and casting forbidding shadows from every surface. Ahead, I could see that Madi and Jon had stayed where I left them; they were down low on the ground, waiting.

I pulled Lisa along, running towards the pair. “Where are we going?” she called.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

We reached the group and Lisa dove to the ground next to Madi, checking her for wounds. There were none, and Madi looked at Lisa with relieved eyes. “Hi, Lisa! Glad you’re safe.” Lisa shot looked at me with hard eyes, but didn’t go back to the medical office.

Our small group reached the far fence. It was solid, with no gate, and menacing barbed wire at the top. “What now, Jon?” I asked.

“This was
your
idea?” Lisa shot at him.

“Yes, watch,” he smiled, reaching down to the bottom of the metal links, he pulled it up from the soil that barely covered it, then pulled, hard, out and up. There was just enough room for a thin person to crawl under. Fortunately for us, we were all thin these days.